I just got back a few days ago from visiting my parents in WV. While I was there, my niece spent the night and a few days with me. She is 10 years old and has taken piano lessons off and on for about two years…so she reads music and understands counting, etc. While there, she took an interest in playing the whistle and spent quite a bit of time playing out of a “Step One: Play Pennywhistle” book. It isn’t/wasn’t the greatest book for the young beginner, but was the most basic book I could hand to her. I sat down with her and played along some to help with the “feel” of the music and to give her some harmony which she enjoyed. I think there were only a couple of tunes/exercises that she could play before the book started discussing double-tonguing (she had just started single tonguing). Needless to say that I (and the rest of the family) got to hear those few tunes over and over for three days. She was so proud of her accomplishment and was doing well. Had I thought, I would have tried to find some paper and scribbled out a few things for her.
Anyway, her birthday is coming up soon, so I thought that I would get her a whistle and beginning book (perhaps one with a CD). If I had access to a variety of them and was able to flip through the books, there wouldn’t be a problem with finding one that is suitable, but I haven’t found a music store in the area that has a large whistle music collection. (Darn the luck!! 
) I have been looking online at a few, but I still can’t browse their contents. A few that I ran across were the Waltons Irish Tin Whistle Starter Kit, Children’s Tin Whistle Method Book & CD, and the Clarke Tin Whistle Handbook by Bill Ochs. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good beginning whistle book for her?
